


The Safest Place

by reginaldthegreat



Category: Until Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, College, Established Relationship, F/M, Love, One Shot, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Psychological Trauma, Short & Sweet, Short One Shot, Trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-16
Updated: 2020-12-16
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:20:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28106910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reginaldthegreat/pseuds/reginaldthegreat
Summary: It had been a year since Matt escaped, a year since he had never been the same again. You knew you’d never be able to understand, not really, but that didn’t stop you from trying.
Relationships: Matt Taylor (Until Dawn)/Reader
Kudos: 3





	The Safest Place

After two hours of trying to help Matt with his anatomy exam (he needed to keep his GPA up to keep his college football scholarship), he was exhausted. He lay next to you on the bed, surrounded by textbooks and hand-labeled diagrams, fast asleep. His shirt was discarded on the swiveling gaming chair at the foot of your bed. You’d suggested memorizing the muscular system by labeling the muscles on his own body, since you knew he was obsessed with his carefully sculpted physique. 

You’d forgotten though, that this would mean bringing attention to the scars after his fall from the fire tower... and to the one from the wendigo attack. 

He seemed crestfallen when your eyes fell upon the gashes on his chest and torso. 

“I hate having to see them... every time I’m at the gym, or trying to have a good time with you... or just... showering,” he’d said. “It sucks. It really sucks.” 

You had looked up at him, concerned and guilt-ridden. “We can do this on paper, it’s okay. It was a bad idea. I should’ve thought it through before I suggested it.”

He shook his eyes, his deep brown eyes settling on your own, before he took your small hand and placed it on his chest, over his heart. 

“Pectoralis major,” he said softly.

Now, after he managed to retain roughly 3/4 of the muscle names, you watched him sleep, his eyes darting quickly under his eyelids. A nightmare. 

You reached out hesitantly, resting your hand over the scar on the side of his face. He couldn’t even hide that wound. 

Instinctively, still asleep, he leaned into your hand. He craved the warmth and safety you brought him. You knew it because sometimes, when the nightmares were really bad, he’d bury his face in your neck and stay there, shaking, sometimes crying, unable to let go of you until his muscles relaxed and the memory faded into the past. 

You wrestled with the idea of waking him. He didn’t get enough sleep as it is, the trauma of that winter etched into the back of his eyelids. 

He whimpered, his large hands suddenly grasping the sheets tightly, desperately, and you decided it would be best to wake him. 

“Matt,” you whispered, thumb still stroking his jaw. “Wake up. You’re having a bad dream.”

He gasped, eyes fluttering open, panting from a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding. “What... huh?” 

He looked up at you, took in the familiar feeling of your hand on his face, the sight of the origami airplanes hanging from your ceiling over your head, and he sighed in relief. 

“Sorry, I didn’t make a lot of noise, did I?” 

You didn’t answer, leaning in to kiss him instead. 

After a moment of surprise, he reached out to tangle his fingers in your hair, to find solace in the feeling of you. He wished he could kiss you all day, all the time. It was one of the few things that could make his mind stop. Finally stop. No more wendigos. No more death. No more screams, replaying in his head over and over. 

When he kissed you, his mind was empty. Not empty in a cold and hopeless way, but empty in a warm way. Easy. Soft. Safe. 

Safe. 

He looked for safety wherever he could find it. He stayed away from dark places. Stayed away from people who reminded him of his old friends. Stayed away from letterman jackets and snow. 

Somehow, in his desperate search, he found you: the safest place he could find. 

He kissed you back with everything he had, because he hoped that maybe, just maybe, he’d lose himself in your lips. He hoped he’d get lost in his safest place and never find himself again.


End file.
